Carved Alabaster Warrior Vessel with Eagle & Turquoise, Mesilla Gallery

Carved from a single block of alabaster — the stone's natural white calcite inclusions and warm terracotta mineral veining left largely undisturbed, reading as scattered seeds or snow across the body — this sculptural vessel presents two warriors standing shoulder-to-shoulder around a central offering bowl, flanked by a carved eagle at the crown. Each warrior figure is rendered in profile: a strong brow and nose, long parallel-incised hair cascading over the shoulders of what reads as a manta robe, and a deliberately textured facial treatment that adds dimensionality consistent with careful hand-work. The stone's dense white mineral spotting gives the figures' robes a quality reminiscent of deer hide — an evocative convergence of material and symbol, as the deer carries rain-bringing and abundance associations across Pueblo visual tradition.

Around the neck of the vessel, incised lightning/zigzag and concentric diamond motifs are filled with white pigment — active symbols in the Pueblo visual vocabulary, where the zigzag references lightning and rain, and the nested diamond is widely associated with the squash blossom or the abstract eye of the Awanyu, the horned water serpent and rain deity central to Rio Grande Pueblo belief. The interior bowl is packed with loose turquoise nuggets, included in the lot — revered across Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache traditions as a material of sky, water, and protection. The eagle at the crown ties the composition upward, toward rain and sky. Together, warrior guardians, rain symbols, eagle, and a turquoise fill situate this vessel within a prayer-offering or altar-vessel tradition. The underside bears a gold dealer sticker from The William Bonney Gallery, Mesilla, New Mexico — a Doña Ana County dealer in fine regional art — placing this piece within a serious Mesilla Valley trade channel. The carver is unsigned and unidentified.

• Retailed through The William Bonney Gallery, Mesilla, New Mexico (Doña Ana County) — gallery sticker intact on underside
• No additional documentation; carver unsigned and unidentified

The alabaster does real compositional work here. Rather than carving away the stone's dense white mineral inclusions, the maker incorporated them — the spotted, almost patterned surface of the warriors' robes gaining a texture the chisel alone could not have achieved. The overall form — two warriors standing as guardians around a sacred interior, an eagle presiding at the crown — echoes Pueblo pottery traditions in which the vessel is understood as a living body, its opening a mouth through which prayers and offerings are received.

CONDITION

Excellent, with no remarkable damage noted. Incised pigment lines remain crisp and well-defined across the zigzag and diamond motifs. The turquoise fill is intact within the bowl. Stone surface shows natural variation — grey-green body with areas of warm terracotta consistent with the mineral character of the alabaster.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• 6" H × 8" W × 5.5" D
• Weight: 9 lb 5 oz
• Materials: Single-piece carved alabaster; loose turquoise nuggets (included)
• Circa 1990s
• Carved from one solid stone
• Figures: Two warriors (profile, incised hair/manta robes); eagle carved at crown
• Incised motifs: zigzag (lightning/rain), concentric diamonds, parallel hair lines; filled with white pigment
• Unsigned; carver unidentified
• Gallery sticker on underside: The William Bonney Gallery, Mesilla, NM 88046
• Campbell's Cream of Celery Can (4" H) Shown for Scale — Not Included